Poisonous garden plants- how do people manage plants in gardens( the list seems huge)

[W0rdl3]

Ripping out everything on lists I’ve read online would be a never ending tasking and a joyless garden- tulips, geraniums, wisteria, hydrangea…… Is vigilance ok

What do people do re hydrangea? Complete nay or ok under supervision? Obviously not planning on planting onions, daffodils or a grape vine.

My garden has almost all those plants you mentioned. Never had a problem with them, my dogs don't eat plants though so maybe that is why.

Never looked at plant lists or considered looking tbh. My dogs have never eaten plants or flowers. We have a few hydrangea’s and they walk by them, sometimes sniff or look at stuff and no harm has come to them. They used to pull the heads off daffodils when pups but they did not eat them and grew out of it. Vigilance is fine in my opinion.

When my two were young, less than two I think but can't be sure because they will/ would be 14 this year, they dig up and ate irises. I got a phone call at work from my mum telling me she has to take my boy dog to the vet. He swelled up so badly and was covered in lumps and being sick. Then a few hours later his sister started the same. Bloody labs. They didn't eat any flowers again thank god, but did eat the bottom of a chair, a bag of onions and ETCHED BRASS!!

We have those plants in our garden and our lab has never tried to eat any of them.

I worried about this when I rescued my boy in the autumn as I have dozens of daffs but he doesn't eat plants thankfully (slugs and fox poo is a different matter...!)

We had lots of those plants last year when ours was a pup she pulled the heads off lots of flowers and dug in the beds/pots! She found it a great game and I found it very stressful having to constantly prevent her getting near them. We blocked her access to most of them and never let her out unsupervised. We haven't planted anything yet for this year as I'm not sure I have the will for it lol

It has never occurred to me to remove garden plants.

But then the dogs we've fostered and our own never dug or ate plants

Once mine was out of puppyhood he wasn't interested in chewing plants or digging things up.

The main risk is the bulbs, I think.

After the puppy stage when he had to be restricted on where he was allowed to go he has never bothered trying to eat any. He does like to lie down on a few

I only worried about plants where a tiny amount could do harm and I don't think we had any (I think there is a certain type of clematis that is very poisonous)

In the very early days she was closely supervised, and then she never showed any inclination to eat flowers and plants other than obvious edibles like strawberries and sugar snap peas.

Once not a puppy anymore she lost all interest in garden plants. She does hide her (safe) bones/favourite toys/chews in the flower pots. Very furtively and constantly looking round to check no one can see her. She doesn't realise that the turfed out bulbs, plants, bedding plants and her muddy paws are all a bit of a clue.

The vast majority of “poisonous” plants aren’t really concerning.

Poinsettia, for example is a classic one- it might give your dog a stomach upset, but that’s it.

Hydrangeas do contain a cyanide compound, but so do apple pips, peach, cherry stones and the like. Thing is you need to grind the plant up to release the cyanide, so unless your dog spends a significant amount of time chewing on your hydrangea then serious poisoning is unlikely.

Allium is a chronic poison, the need to eat it regularly over a period of time to see effects.

Grapes yes, avoid. Same with lillies if you have cats.

Personally unless you have a persistent plant eater, or some sort of medieval physic garden, I wouldn’t be overly worried.

My dog much more interested in eating poo than flowers but I know what you mean, I had the same worries before we got him. He's 9 months and I've only very recently allowed him in the garden unsupervised.

You can smell the strawberries off our boy's breath when he comes in from a round of the garden in the Summer but he has no interest in any of the other plants. His body generally smells of tomato plant as he squeezes in past them to get to the good stuff😂😂

We have ornamental railings around one of our patios so our dog only goes on the grass /plant area when he’s invited / supervised - he dug up a bulb as a pup and had a near death experience so it’s not worth the risk . It has the added advantage that he doesn’t drag mud into the house .

Maybe it’s a puppy thing but one of mine (6 months) is a horror for eating plants!
My garden is deliberately planted with exclusively non toxic plants because of my young children so I don’t worry about him eating things but I certainly would if I had ‘traditional’ plants that are often toxic if ingested.
His favourite are my radishes!
I can often smell them on him when he’s been out and see the evidence where he’s pulled them up and given them a chomp (he chews both the leaves and the actual vegetable).
If radishes aren’t available his next favourite plants to eat are Thyme and Lemon Balm.

He likes to try and eat my houseplants also!
I only have non toxic ones.
It depends on your dogs personality really I suppose, if he’s a plant chewer I would get rid of toxic plants like hydrangeas etc myself personally